The integumentary system

 The integument as an organ:

• The integument as an organ, and

is an alternative name for skin.

• The integumentary system

includes the skin and the skin
derivatives hair, nails, and glands.
 The integumentary system
The Integument
 Is the largest system of the body
– 16% of body weight,
– 1.5 to 2m2in area,
– The integument is made up of two parts:
1. Cutaneous membrane.
a. Epidermis– Superficial epithelium.
b. Dermis – underlying CT with blood supply
2. Accessory structuresa.
a. Hair.
b. Nails
c. Exocrine Glands
 Functions of integumentary system

Protection
– First line of defense against
• Bacteria
• Viruses
– Protects underlying structures from
• Ultraviolet (UV) radiation
• Dehydration
– Vitamin D production
• Needed for calcium absorption
– Sensation
• Sensory receptors
 Functions of integumentary system

 Body temperature regulation

– If too hot
• Dermal blood vessels dilate
• Vessels carry more blood to surface so heat can escape
– If too cold
• Dermal blood vessels constrict
• Prevents heat from escaping

 Excretion
– Small amounts of waste products are lost through perspiration
 Structure of Skin

 Understanding how the skin can function in these many

ways starts with understanding the structure of the three
layers of skin
– The Epidermis
• Epithelial tissue
– Dermis
• Dense connective tissue proper – irregular
– Hypodermis
• Subcutaneous tissue- loose connective tissue proper and adipose tissue
Structure of Skin
 Epidermis

 The epidermis consists mainly of

 keratinocytes.
 Three much less abundant epidermal cell types:
– pigment-producing melanocytes,
– antigen-presenting Langerhans cells, and
– tactile epithelial cells called Merkel cells
 The epidermis forms the major distinction
– thick skin : the palms and soles,
– thin skin : elsewhere on the body.
 The stratified squamous epidermis lacks
microvasculature, its cells receiving nutrients and O2 by
diffusion from the dermis.
Epidermal ridges or pegs (EP) and dermal papillae
(DP).
The dermis (D) is with elastin and less coarse
bundles of collagen.
The epidermis shows only four layers:
• the one-cell thick stratum basale (B) containing
most mitotic cells;
• the stratum spinosum (S) where synthesis of
much keratin and other proteins takes place;
• the stratum granulosum (G); and the stratum
corneum (C), consisting of dead squamous
composed mostly of keratin.
 Keratinocytes

 The basal layer (Stratum basale) a single layer of

basophilic cuboidal or columnar cells at the dermal-
epidermal junction.
 Hemidesmosomes in the basal cell membranes join these
cells to the basal lamina.
 It is characterized by intense mitotic activity and contains,
progenitor cells for all the epidermal layers.
 The basal stem cells for keratinocytes found here.
 The human epidermis is renewed about every 15 to 30
days,
 Medical Application

 Friction blisters are lymph-filled spaces created between

the epidermis and dermis of thick skin by excessive
rubbing, as with ill-fitting shoes or hard use of the hands.
If continued, such activity produces protective thickening
and hardening of the outer cornified epidermal layers,
seen as corns and calluses.
The spinous layer (Stratum spinosum)

 is normally the thickest layer, especially in the epidermal

ridges actively synthesizing keratins.
 Just above the basal layer, some cells may still divide and
this combined zone is sometimes called the stratum
germinativum.
 The keratin filaments assemble here into microscopically
visible bundles called tonofibrils.
 The epidermis of thick skin subject to continuous friction
and pressure (such as the foot soles) has a thicker
stratum spinosum with more abundant tonofibrils and
desmosomes.
 Medical Application

 In adults, one-third of all cancers originate in the skin.

Most of these derive from cells of the basal or spinous
layers, producing, respectively, basal cell carcinomas and
squamous cell carcinomas.
 Fortunately, both types of tumors can be diagnosed and
excised early and consequently are rarely lethal. Skin
cancer shows an increased incidence in fair-skinned
individuals residing in regions with high amounts of solar
radiation.
The granular layer (stratum granulosum)

 Consists of three to five layers of flattened cells, now

undergoing the terminal differentiation process of
keratinization.
 Their cytoplasm is filled with intensely basophilic masses
called keratohyaline granules.
 These are dense, non-membrane-bound masses of
filaggrin and other proteins associated with the keratins
of tonofibrils, linking them further into large cytoplasmic
structures.
The stratum lucidum & stratum corneum

 The stratum lucidum found only in thick skin, consists of a

thin, translucent layer of flattened eosinophilic
keratinocytes held together by desmosomes.
 The stratum corneum consists of 15 to 20 layers of
squamous, keratinized cells filled with birefringent
filamentous keratins.
 As they form, keratin tonofibrils become heavily massed
with filaggrin and other proteins in keratohyaline granules.
 These fully keratinized or cornified cells called squames
 Medical Application

 In the chronic skin condition called psoriasis, keratocytes

are typically produced and differentiate at accelerated
rates, causing at least slight thickening of the epidermal
layers and increased keratinization and desquamation.
 Psoriasis is caused by overactive T lymphocytes that
trigger an autoimmune reaction in the skin, which can
also lead to inflammation with redness, irritation, itching,
and scaling, with a defective skin barrier.
 Melanocytes

 The colour of the skin is the result of several factors, the

most important of which are the keratinocytes’ content of
melanin and carotene and the number of blood vessels
in the dermis.

 Eumelanins are brown or

black pigments produced by
the melanocyte a specialized
cell of the epidermis found
among the cells of the basal
layer and in hair follicles.

The similar pigment found in red hair is called

pheomelanin
 Medical Application

 Albinism is a congenital disorder producing skin

hypopigmentation due to a defect in tyrosinase or some
other component of the melanin-producing pathway.
 An acquired condition called vitiligo involves skin
depigmentation, often only in affected patches, due to the
loss or decreased activity of melanocytes.
 The causes of melanocyte loss are not clear, but they
may include environmental, genetic, or autoimmune
conditions.
 Dermis

 The second, deeper part of the skin, the dermis, is

composed of dense irregular connective tissue
containing collagen and elastic fibres.
 Ability to stretch and recoil easily.
 It is much thicker than the epidermis, and this
thickness varies from region to region in the body
 Actual leather….What we use in daily life.
 important structural and functional relations.
 The dermis can be divided into a thin superficial
papillary region and a thick deeper reticular region.
The papillary region makes up about one-fifth of the thickness of the total
layer.
 Dermal papillae
– Capillary loops(blood vessels).
– Meissner corpuscles or Tactile receptors or Corpuscles of touch
– Also contain free nerve endings for warmth, coolness, pain, tickling,
and itching
The papillary region makes up about one-fifth of the thickness of the total
layer.
 Dermal papillae
– Capillary loops(blood vessels).
– Meissner corpuscles or Tactile receptors or Corpuscles of touch
– Also contain free nerve endings for warmth, coolness, pain, tickling,
and itching
 The reticular region
– attached to the subcutaneous layer,
with thick collagen fibres, scattered
fibroblasts, and various wandering
cells.
– The more regular orientation of the
large collagen fibers helps the skin
resist stretching. Blood vessels,
nerves, hair follicles, sebaceous
(oil)glands, and sudoriferous
(sweat) glands occupy the
spacesbetween fibers
• The more regular orientation of the large collagen fibers
helps the skin resist
• stretching. Blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles, sebaceous
(oil) glands, and sudoriferous (sweat) glands occupy the
spaces between fibbers.
• the skin with strength, extensibility, the ability to stretch,
and elasticity, the ability to return to original shape after
stretching
 Tension lines (lines of
cleavage)in the skin indicate
the predominant direction of
underlying collagen fibers.
 For example, a fine scar. the
wound tends to gape open
and heal in a broad, thick
scar.
 The Structural Basis of Skin Color

 Melanin, hemoglobin, and carotene are three pigments that impart

a wide variety of colors to skin.
 The difference between the two forms of melanin, pheomelanin
(yellow to red) and Eumelanins (brown to black), is most apparent
in the hair.
 Melanocytes, the melanin-producing cells, are most plentiful in the
epidermis of the penis, nipples of the breasts, in comparison to rest
of body parts.
– Freckles & Moles
– Albinism
– Vitiligo
– Cyanotic
– Jaundice
– Erythema
– Pallor
 Accessory structures of the skin
 Hair,

 Skin glands, and

 Nails, develop from the embryonic epidermis.
 They have a host of important functions.

 For example, hair and nails protect the body, and sweat
glands help regulate body temperature.
 Hair
 Hairs:
– present on most skin surfaces except the palms, palmar
surfaces of the fingers, the soles, and plantar surfaces of the
feet.
– In adults, hair usually is most heavily distributed across the
scalp, in the eyebrows, in the axillae (armpits), and around the
external genitalia.
– Genetic and hormonal influences largely determine the
thickness and the pattern of hair distribution.
– Hair Colour
• The colour of hair is due primarily to the amount and type of melanin in
its keratinized cells.
– Hirsutism : excessive body hair or body hair in areas that
usually are not hairy
 Skin Glands

 Several kinds of exocrine glands are associated with the skin:

sebaceous (oil) glands, sudoriferous (sweat) glands, and
ceruminous glands alog with Mammary glands.
 Sebaceous glands or oil glands:
– are simple, branched acinar (rounded) glands.
– lies in the dermis and usually opens into the neck of a hair follicle.
– In some
– locations, such as the lips, glans penis, labia minora, and tarsal glands of
the eyelids, sebaceous glands open directly onto the surface of the skin.
– Absent in the palms and soles,
– Small in most areas of the trunk and limbs,
– Large in the skin of the breasts, face, neck, and superior chest.
 Sudoriferous Glands
– There are three million to four million sweat glands,or
sudoriferous glands in the body.
– The cells of these glands release sweat, or perspiration, into
hair follicles or onto the skin surface through pores.
– Sweat glands are divided into two main types,
• Eccrine (Most Common) and
• Apocrine
– Eccrine sweat glands (about 600 ml/Day) consists of water,
ions, urea, uric acid, ammonia, amino acids, glucose, and lactic
acid.
 Thermoregulatory sweating.
 Emotional sweating (Both Active)
 Ceruminous Glands:
– Modified sweat glands in the external ear, called ceruminous
glands), produce a waxy lubricating secretion.
– The combined secretion of the ceruminous and sebaceous
glands is a yellowish material called cerumen or earwax.
 Nails

 Nails:
– are plates of tightly packed, hard, dead, keratinized epidermal
cells that form a clear, solid covering over the dorsal surfaces of
the distal portions of the digits.
– Each nail consists of a nail body, a free edge, and a nail root

 Nails have a variety of functions:

1. They protect the distal end of the digits.
2. They provide support and counter pressure to the palmar
surface of the fingers to enhance touch perception and
manipulation.
3. They allow us to grasp and manipulate small objects, and they
can be used to scratch and groom the body in various ways